Aquaponics Tips - Water Loss Compensation

Water loss is a big issue over here in hot equatorial weather especially during dry spell. It will affect more on smaller system, and to be away for a week or so then it could be a disaster waiting to happen.

To compensate during this period of hot spell or unattended system running I decided to make a trickle water compensation into my fish tank. I saw it was done by Zulhairi in his blog site and it's a good idea.

I use a small tap and hose that commonly use for water filter and just metered the flow rate by adjusting tap position. I need about 5 ~ 6 liter per hour flow rate. The measuring container above was use to check how much water flow after about 15 minutes. The rest is just adjusting tap to get the approximate correct flow.Update 22/7/2013 : After 2 days of operation, I readjust water to 4 Liter/hour flow rate. Will be monitoring these next two weeks.

Once I had obtain the correct flow, the small tap handle is removed and safe-keep, this to ensure no accidental closing or opening of this tap that could cause major problem to my set. Basically to keep off "small fingers" from messing with it. Full water shut off is by closing that water cock on the wall below the tap if trickle flow is not needed.

Water trickling into fish tank. Chlorine is not a major concern since the flow is too small.Update : 11 August 2013I left my Aquaponics set unattended for 5 days during a festive holiday, no problem at all with water level. It maintain just nice throughout the period running by itself. Water level sufficient and no sign of over spilling or too much water. Adjusted rate is 4 liter per hour drip. Total water volume in system is about 1200 liter and at 4 liter its will be about 96 Liter daily @ 8% compensation.

5 comments:

Water loss is about 5% or less daily from splashes, evaporation and plants, this drip method is easiest and cheapest to do. Like fit and forget without any movable parts. If I add a float, I would need to mount the float underwater to the level that I need for it to trigger I find it is more difficult to do and more problematic and it can go wrong. I can't afford a failed components in my set, the result can be disastrous. So this is the easiest and least can go wrong. :)

Selamat Datang

I am an Aquaponics Enthusiast from Malaysia. My involvement with Aquaponics started few years back moving from water gardening, ornamental fish keeping and from necessities to keep plants alive in concrete jungle we live in.

Urban Agrostyle specializing in Media Based Flood & Drain Aquaponics using siphon, producing vegetables and fish for household use in the small space that I have. Ornamental Aquaponics is another area of aquaponics that I am looking at with working prototype that currently in use.

I did made some design improvement to the aquaponics siphon making it reliable and as such that it is an "install and forget" item in the system.

This blog is about my daily activities in Aquaponics, trying new things, improving on old or just routine work that I do. It will also be some blunders that happens occasionally, so that it will be a lesson learned and not repeated.

I don't do Aquaponics on a commercial scale because it requires different level of expertise, settings and support equipment, therefore I will not reply any query on it.

Thank you and do enjoy your visit and hope it’s beneficial to both you and me.